We are a community of seekers, hungry to feed our minds and spirits. Broad Street Presbyterian Church is… a place where you can experience the presence of God a community where you can connect with people exploring issues of life and faith a place where people are committed to making a difference in our neighborhood and the larger world a community shaped by the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

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Monthly Archives: May 2015

Last Friday, the communion of saints got a little more colorful when artist Aminah Robinson died at the age of 75. She was a recipient of a MacArthur genius grant and her work has been shown in galleries and museums around the world. Her work was shaped by this neighborhood and so often depicted this neighborhood. She grew up in Poindexter Village and the streets and stories and people of the near east side were so often the focus of her art.
When I think of Aminah Robinson, I first picture the staircase mural in the Columbus Metropolitan Library’s downtown branch. When you remember her, what comes to your mind?

Today I give thanks to God for the ways in which Aminah Robinson expanded our imaginations, pointed beyond herself to the community she loved, and helped us better understand the rich history and deep resources of this neighborhood.

On Sunday we introduced Flat Jesus during children’s time. If you missed him we invite you to meet him now.

Flat Jesus reminds me of Flat Stanley! A children’s book tells the story of Flat Stanley. He was a little boy flattened by a bulletin board – in the book it’s amazing what he could do after that – he could fly like a kite, slip under doors, and travel by mail. During elementary school my children brought Flat Stanley home so we could send him to grandparents through the mail.

Last Sunday at BSPC we introduced our own version of Flat Stanley – Flat Jesus! Flat Jesus is here because it is almost summer, when the weather is nice and school is out. No matter our age, summer is a fun time to get out of our homes and see God’s world. Sometimes, because we are so busy enjoying creation and friends with travels and adventures, we don’t find our way to church on Sundays.

To keep us all connected with our church family over the summer, we want people of all ages to take Flat Jesus wherever you go – on vacations, day trips, or to the neighborhood park. Then we invite you – all of you – to take photos of Flat Jesus out in the world; in nature and with the people you are visiting.

Flat Jesus reminds us that God is with us wherever we go. We’ll remember Jesus’ love in the mountains, at the beach, or at the zoo. Wherever we are, we can know God is with us.

So before you go on an adventure this summer, choose a Flat Jesus and take him with you. And when you return, bring him back to BSPC so he can go on another adventure. For your next trip you can choose a new Flat Jesus. All we ask is that you email or text us your photos to Nicole.

You can also print and color your own Flat Jesus at home, on cardstock, using this PDF.

We even have a few special devotions in ‘on the go’ bags – for a trip with Flat Jesus to the beach, a lake, the mountains, a park or the zoo. If you go to one of these places, choose a bag offering specific activities that connect our everyday life to faith.

A two minute You Tube video from the Coral Gables United Church of Christ invites you into their Flat Jesus project.

This Sunday, look for the Flat Jesus display in the Narthex. And remember, where we go, God goes, too.

We convinced pastor and poet and 8:45 worship regular Bill Leety to share this poem with the congregation. Enjoy!

Membrane

Snow floated that morning-Sunday.
Through the art glass atrium windows
behind table and pulpit and pastors,
movement catches the eye.
The other side of an occasional slow-moving car
on Broad Street, and morning pedestrians on sidewalks,
a woman slowly climbs a fire escape
on the east side of a building to a second floor door-
distraction: from silence, hymn, prayers, sermon, and from
a congregation dressed in early service less-formals.

Distraction?
Or, is the Edward Hopper cityscape always part
of Sunday plot? preached, sung, prayed, celebrated and
confessed? God’s storied presence just the other side
of a window membrane? Permeable as a bridge, pass-thru
or pass-on, or passion? a door that only appears securely closed?

In red coat and black cap, the woman foot over foot ascends;
from my place of vision, through or into or within
images in glass-creation’s rocks and stream, a loaf of bread,
a chalice.

Such is worship! world and Word as close as a line
of vision. Stories mix in plot or loaf,
in creation’s big-bang, stars hurled at galaxies, and light
into dark, and in a knot of worshipers and the stew made
of our attention, boredom, hope, distraction, memory,
bewilderment.

With us gathered this side of a window, this side of Broad,
this walker is gathered too, returning from her trip
to a store on Parsons for the Sunday Times, or from
her shift at Children’s Hospital, or a night partying;
or to her father or friend,
or to warmth across the street, up the stairs.

And, she and we become one by that membrane
of glass and slowly floating snow,
of line of vision and distraction,
of Broad Street, and the city,
and of The One.